FOirr.S IN ESICDAI.EMDIK. 81 



Francis Lynn, F.S.A., Galashiels, who has devoted many years of 

 liis life to the exploration of forts and trenches in the South of 

 Scotland, and North of England, tells me that it is unique in his 

 experience both as to its undefended position and to this peculi- 

 arity, that its floor is raised higher than the ground outside the 

 inner trench. He suggests that it may have been used as an 

 arena for athletic sports, the spectators looking on from the sur- 

 rounding slopes. 1 was more inclined to accept the opinion, 

 expressed to me by our friend Mr Barbour, that it might have 

 been the Cemetery of the main fort, especially as a trench or 

 hollow way leads directly from one to the other. On making- 

 excavations we found that the subsoil of the work is blue clay ; 

 upon this clay logs of wood have evidently been laid to form a 

 Hoor ; the logs themselves have decayed away, but the bark 

 remains, and I scarcely think that layers of bark alone had been 

 used, as it would have been too thin and yielding for such a 

 purpose. On the top of this wooden rioor is a superior one, 

 formed with rough stones, laid with their Hat side down, and at 

 the present day about 1 8 inches of peat moss has accumulated 

 above these floors. On a space quite 40 feet in diameter, in the 

 centre of the work, we came upon a collection of rough stones, 18 

 inches thick, and below this, resting upon a layer of charred 

 wood, mixed up with the clay, was a great quantity of minute 

 fragments of bones, none of them being more than one inch in 

 length, and these, undoubtedly, had been subjected to the action 

 of tire. If these bones were human, I hoped that JNIr Barbour's 

 suggestion that this was the Cemetery, or " Crematorium," of the 

 main fort might be corroborated, though it was not ({uite obvious 

 why a Cemetery, or an arena for athletic g-ames, should require 

 strong earthworks for their protection. However, on submitting- 

 the bones to Professor Struthers, Royal College of Surgeons, 

 Edinburgh, for his opinion, he said that without being able to 

 declare positively that they were not human, he inclined to think 

 they were those of some of the lower animals. I fear, therefore, 

 in the face of such an opinion, the Crematorium theory must be 

 abandoned, and the (juestion still remains — what was it ? 



Jjesides the trenches immediately surrounding the main fort, 

 and which are palpably for defensive purposes, there are others 

 starting from them, and radiating- over the greater part of the 

 lands of Castle O'er, the use of which is not so obvious, unless 



